The news attracted my attention this morning was the children of Sir Michael Butler were involved in bitter legal dispute over their father's 500 Ming pottery pieces. Sir Michael left the collection ( insured for £8 million) to his 4 children equally when he died in December 2013. Yet his two younger children wanted to keep the collection intact and refused to hand over 125 pieces each to their two elder sibblings. They said it was their father's wish to have the collection displayed in the local Dorset museum and their mother, the surviving widow of Sir Michael agreed with them.
The feud broke out 4 days after their father died. It's beyond my comprehension that Sir Michael, who was a distinguished diplomat, and who successfully negotiated the complicated treaty with EU, failed to write up a water tight will of his own to avoid such messy squabbles. Money spent over solicitors is money lost to the inheritance, equal to pots of beauty biting to the dust!
The two elder sibblings accused their parents of favouritism over the younger two children. Perhaps they are more hard up and desperate to cash in?
Reading the story and browsing the photos, the only thing I am sure of is, for this piece only, it's worth fighting for!
